Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testifies before a Senate hearing Aug. 21, 2020 (screenshot)
In a contentious Senate hearing Friday, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy rebutted Democrats' claims that he conspired with President Trump to employ policies that threaten mail-in voting.
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, pressed DeJoy on the Democrats' accusation from he discussed any changes at the Postal Service in relation to the election with President Trump or anyone at the White House.
"I have never spoken to the president about the Postal Service, other than to congratulate me for accepting the position," DeJoy replied.
Peters pressed him on claims that he was limiting overtime and creating backlogs in mail.
"Senator, we never eliminated overtime," DeJoy said.
"It's been curtailed, significantly, is what I understand," Peters interjected.
"It has not been curtailed by me or the leadership team," the postmaster general said.
Peters insisted: "It's been curtailed signicantly, it's gone down, it been limited."
DeJoy said that since he was appointed to the post in June, USPS has spent $700 million on overtime.
"Overtime ran at a 13% before I got here, and it runs at a 13% rate now," he said.
Peters asked DeJoy if he could commit to there being no Post Office closures or suspensions before the Nov. 3 election.
"I confirm Post Office closures was not a directive I gave," he replied. "That was around before I got here. There's a process to that. When I found out about it, and it had the reaction that we did, I suspended that until after the election."
Peters asked DeJoy if he would bring back any of the mail sorting machines that have been removed since he became postmaster general.
"There is no intention to do that. They are not needed, sir."
Peters followed up: "So, you will not bring back any processors?"
"They are not needed, sir," DeJoy said.
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In his closing comments, Johnson slammed Democrats for allegedly "ginning this, these issues and these problems up into something that it's not. A very false narrative ... to extract a political advantage."
Peters: "These are real concerns that I am hearing. These are not manufactured, these are people who are coming forward talking about delays, talking about medicine that's not available for them."
When DeJoy took over USPS in June, he quickly began making what were regarded as money-saving changes to the constantly-in-the-red post office, Fox News reported.
Democrats, however, charged that the changes have slowed mail service and could undermine the ability to deliver ballots this fall.
USPS sent letters to most states warning that the Post Office might not be able to deliver mail-in ballots on time under their mail-in voting rules. There is expected to be an uptick in mail-in ballots this fall as states encourage such voting to limit citizens' risk of contracting the coronavirus.
DeJoy said in his opening remarks he wanted "to assure this committee and the American public that the Postal Service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nation's election mail securely and on time."
"This sacred duty is my No. 1 priority between now and election day," he said.
The perception that the Trump administration is trying to undermine the ability of the Post Office to deliver mail-in ballots was not helped when the president seemed to say he was withholding money for USPS that Democrats included in the coronavirus relief bill for that very purpose in an interview with Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo. His administration later walked the comment back, saying it is other demands Democrats are making for that legislation that are holding up negotiations.
The Friday hearing was called by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, who worried that House Democrats in a hearing scheduled for Monday would not be fair to DeJoy.
The remote hearing experienced a technical difficult Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., was muted when he initially tried to speak. As Johnson began to move on to the next member, Carper's feed unmuted just as he yelled "f---" three times in frustration.
After getting the technical issue fixed, Carper said that he had been getting more complaints from his constituents about postal service and that it seemed like the problems were DeJoy's fault.
"Frankly, they coincide with the time you took office," Carper said. "Maybe it's just a coincidence, I'm not so sure. ... We've got a president who doesn't want to have vote by mail. We've got a president who likes to suppress the vote. We've got a president who would like to see the Postal Service not do well."
"One fact that needs to be highlighted to refute one part of the false narrative is that the postmaster general is not appointed by President Trump," Johnson said. "The bipartisan Postal Board of Governors engaged a professional search firm that identified Louis DeJoy as an outstanding candidate with the necessary background and skill set to tackle the enormous challenges postal system. The bipartisan governors then unanimously, again, let me repeat that, they unanimously approved his appointment as postmaster general."
Johnson also said that the Postal Service has plenty of money to operate fully through the election, without further funding that Democrats have asked for.
Johnson asked DeJoy about the letter sent to state election boards that said USPS might not be able to deliver election mail on time. DeJoy said it was part of an effort to educate state election boards on how mail-processing works.
DeJoy also noted that the expected number of ballots that would be mailed this fall will be a small fraction of USPS' overall capacity.
"150 million, 160 million ballots over the course of a week is a very small amount," he said.
Amid building pressure, DeJoy announced this week that he would walk back some of his plans for changes to the Postal Service's operations and swore that USPS would deliver for Americans on Election Day.
"I want to make a few things clear: The Postal Service is ready today to handle whatever volume of election mail it receives this fall," DeJoy said. "Even with the challenges of keeping our employees and customers safe and healthy as they operate amid a pandemic, we will deliver the nation’s election mail on time and within our well-established service standards."
He added, regarding changes he said predated his time with USPS: "To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded."
Further, DeJoy Friday said the changes he aims to make are directed at enabling the Postal Service to fulfill the Congressional mandate that "requires us to pay our bills through our own efforts."
He said that both successful mail delivery and a financially profitable USPS are possible.
"I think both can be done with a little help from the Congress and the Postal Regulatory Commission," he said.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., asked DeJoy to commit that changes he would make would not delay prescription delivery and that he would deliver election mail on time -- DeJoy did.
Many Democrats have raised concern over the fact DeJoy has donated to the Trump campaign. Sen Mitt Romney, R-Utah, apparently in defense of DeJoy, noted that in addition to Trump, DeJoy donated to Romney too.
"So some people would say you contributed to both sides," Romney said, in reference to the bad blood between himself and the president.
Peters on Friday nevertheless slammed the changes DeJoy has led, saying that mail backlogs and delays have already hurt Americans.
"The operational changes you implemented, without consulting with your customers or the public, have caused significant delays," Peters said. "Delays that have hurt people across the nation."
One notable member of the committee is Democratic vice-presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. Harris is not participating in the hearing itself but has submitted questions in writing.
Harris' questions included one about whether or not DeJoy will "return and reassemble removed or locked collection boxes and mail sorting machines?"
DeJoy, asked similar questions by other senators Friday, said that he would not because the machines aren't needed to keep up on-time Postal Service.
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